power

This is a post that deals with elite athletes, so it’s not going to be suitable for a lot of populations. In fact, some of what this post will cover is the opposite of what younger athletes (high school, first few years in college) need. Something to keep in mind when reading this. A lot of my social media posts deal with the need for fundamentals. I spend a lot of time posting about the squat, picking things up...

“Train for what you want” This is one of the most fundamental principles in strength and conditioning and it’s the one that everyone overthinks and makes too complicated. For most of us, this is really simple. If you want to improve on something then you have to practice the thing you want to improve on. Failing to do this means that you are relying on chance to make improvements, which is not a good idea for a competitive athlete...

In recent years, the hexagonal deadlift (i.e. the trap bar) has gained in popularity with athletic strength and conditioning circles. The argument is that it puts the body in a safer position to perform the deadlift and may allow for more weight to be lifted. Some coaches swear by this exercise. Like a lot of “new” things, there is resistance to this. In the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Lockie et al compared the conventional deadlift to the...

Prioritize for Program Success Today a strength and conditioning coach has way to many things that they have to develop. The internet and equipment companies don’t make this any easier because both things muddy the waters and distort what our athletes need. Today a strength and conditioning coach is expected to increase strength, improve power, develop speed and agility, work on core strength/endurance, develop mobility, increase muscle size (if necessary), educate athletes on nutrition, warm the athlete up for...

Speed is critical to sports performance. One of the side effects of the systematic incorporation of strength and conditioning into sports is that athletes are becoming bigger, stronger and they are a lot faster than they used to be. This means that if we have prospective athletes, speed training is something they are going to have to incorporate into their programs. Nowadays, lifting weights and practicing the sport are not enough! In a previous post ( http://www.cissik.com/blog/2017/10/speed-running-fast-is-a-skill/ ), we...